The Lowry girls basketball team has certainly made it an interesting season for first-year coach Chelsea Cabatbat.

The Buckaroos beat Elko on the final day of the regular season to force a three-way tie at the top of the Division I-A North standings, then edged Spring Creek a week later, 51-50, to win the regional tournament.

Now, Lowry finds itself a top seed for the Division I-A state tournament, which begins today. The Buckaroos will open against Desert Pines, a surprise state-tournament entrant with a 8-21 record.

“I definitely feel like something special can happen with this team,” Cabatbat said. “All year, I’ve just kept telling them, ‘Believe in us, believe in the program and believe in one another, and we’ll be where we want to be in February.’ And it’s continued to happen for us.”

Southern I-A champion Boulder City will face Spring Creek in the other girls semifinal at Lawlor Events Center.

Following is a look at each of the three small-school girls state tournaments beginning today.

Division I-A

Lowry (19-9) doesn’t feature a spectacular individual scorer, but does have a confident and deep roster. The Buckaroos have been led by Alyssa Dendary’s 9.6 points per game.

Spring Creek (18-12) was part of the regular-season tie with Elko and Lowry. The Spartans, led by Maddy Merschel (12.4 ppg), play Boulder City in the semifinals.

Desert Pines is likely the most surprising team to reach one of Nevada’s final fours. The Jaguars finished fourth in the Sunrise League, but powered to the regional championship game with wins over Faith Lutheran and Western.

Division III

Pershing County is back in a familiar place, sitting atop the state bracket as the top seed from the North. The Mustangs (26-3) are three-time defending state champions.

Melissa Gonzalez has led Pershing Co. this season, averaging 15.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.

The Mustangs open the tournament against Needles (20-8).

Incline (23-3) lost by three points to Pershing County in the Division III North title game. All three of the Highlanders’ losses this season were close, coming by a combined 12 points. One of those was to Galena, a Division I school.

Molly Franklin has averaged 14.8 points per game to lead Incline, which also gets more than 10 rebounds per game from Kira Porter.

The Highlanders open today against Division III South champion Lincoln County (14-12).

Division IV

Eureka (27-2) returns to defend its state title after rolling through the Division IV East League with an unbeaten record and winning three regional tournament games last week. The Vandals, who play today against Tonopah, are on a 12-game winning streak.

One of Eureka’s losses came in December to Pahranagat Valley, which enters the state tournament as the top seed from Division IV South. The Panthers (23-4) met Eureka in last season’s state-title game.

Pahranagat Valley plays Pyramid Lake in today’s semifinals. The Lakers (24-2) compiled a perfect 14-0 record while rolling to the Division IV West League title. Their only loss other than the regional tournament finals came against White Pine in the season opener.